Kosovo Ex-Guerrilla Quizzed by Hague Prosecutors as ‘Suspect’

Isuf Gashi speaks to Kosovo media after being questioned by the Specialist Prosecutor's Office. Photo: BIRN.

"I was interviewed as a suspect," Gashi said after the interview.

He said that he told the Hague prosecutors that the KLA did not commit war crimes.

"I was interviewed by the special court for war crimes… I was directly confronted with the events that happened. The KLA did not commit crimes, I told them this as well," Gashi said.

He added that "all [the crimes in Kosovo] were committed by Serbia and Milos [Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic]".

He insisted that he was not guilty of anything and would cooperate with the Hague prosecution.

"I offered all that they asked for… the reality, how [the KLA] was founded, developed, how it acted, why it was founded," he said.

He did not give any details about the specific incidents about which he was interviewed, but said that his interview with the prosecutors would continue on Thursday.

Gashi said he was previously charged with war crimes in a process that continued from 2004 to 2006, but was not convicted.

During the war, he served as a KLA member near the Kosovo town of Rahovec/Orahovac in what the KLA called its Pashtrik operational zone.

The Specialist Prosecutor's Office is tasked with investigating suspects for crimes committed during and just after the Kosovo war, from 1998 to 2000. The crimes are believed to include killings, abductions, illegal detentions and sexual violence.

The Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers will then try the indicted suspects, who are expected to include senior KLA figures.

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